One of the events that hasn’t received much coverage over the years on Uni Watch has been the Little League World Series, for a number of reasons. But that’s about to change. I know there are many valid criticisms of this tournament, but I’ve always enjoyed watching it over the years, and thanks to ESPN, every game has been available to watch for at least the past decade or so.
Like many of you, I played Little League baseball, and while I wasn’t great, I was pretty good — good enough that in the fifth and sixth grade I made my All-Star team. Teams like that, all over the United States and the world, begin play in a series of local, then regional and sectional tournaments to decide who will represent their ‘region’ (or nation/national region) in the LLWS itself. Unfortunately, in both years I made the All-Star team, my squad lost our only game. Our village had both an “East” and a “West” team (I was on the East). But the year after I played (1979), the team from the other side of the village won several games and actually played in the Long Island finals. And one of the guys I went to college with actually played in the LLWS, so I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it.
The LLWS has undergone a bunch of format changes over the years, and currently it features 20 teams — 10 teams from different regions of the United States, and 10 international teams.
The uniforms for the LLWS have been templated and standardized for a number of years now, so every team will have a very similar uniform — the only variations are in the colors used. The uniforms are made by adidas, and this year the caps feature a solid color brim, a white front panel, and a contrasting color rear panel. Each jersey is also two color, and this year the jerseys will have pinstripes and with a script wordmark outlined in white. Sleeves are set-in (as opposed to raglan), and will be color contrasting. The jerseys are in the henley style.
The cap style also features the Little League logo, which is a baseball diamond inside a stylized keystone. If you’re curious as to how this logo was first created and had been modified over the years, click here. On the side of the cap is the LLWS logo
The above examples are the cap for Puerto Rico, and the jersey for the “Northwest” region. Each team will be given white pants. Players are also given solid color socks (which match the main color of the jersey); most kids still wear their pants “pajama style” but a few of them cuff their pants to expose said socks — clearly they GetIt™.
Let’s take a look at the 20 teams who are competing. We’ll start with the 10 teams from the United States.
GREAT LAKES
Here are the cap and jersey. Their colors are royal and orange, and are represented by the Hinsdale Little League from Illinois.
METRO
The Metro Region’s colors are black and orange. They’re represented by South Shore Little League, in New York. Here are the cap and jersey.
MID-ATLANTIC
With colors of navy and red, the Mid-Atlantic is represented by the Council Rock Newton Little League (from Pennsylvania). Here are the cap and jersey.
MIDWEST
If Paul had a rooting interest, it might be for the Midwest representative, the Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Little League, who will be wearing green and yellow. Here are the cap and jersey.
MOUNTAIN
Gold and red are the colors of the Mountain Region, who are represented by the Paseo Verde (Nevada) Little League. Here are the cap and jersey.
NEW ENGLAND
A very pleasing combination of maroon (claret) and light blue are the colors for the New England team. They are represented by the Salem (New Hampshire) Little League. Here are the cap and jersey.
NORTHWEST
With colors befitting of the Mariners, the Northwest squad will feature green and navy blue. The South Hill (Washington) Little League will be their representative. Here are the cap and jersey.
SOUTHEAST
The Southeast region will be represented by the Lake Mary (Florida) Little League, and their colors are yellow and black. Here are the cap and jersey.
SOUTHWEST
The Boerne (Texas) Little League will be representing the Southwest Region. Their colors are orange and yellow. Here are the cap and jersey.
WEST
With colors of light blue and yellow (UCLA?), the West Region will be represented by the Central East Maui (Hawaii) Little League. Here are the cap and jersey.
And now here are the International Representatives.
ASIA PACIFIC
Our first international representative is Kuei-Shan Little League (Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei), and their colors are gold and green. Here are the cap and jersey.
AUSTRALIA
The colors of Australia’s representative, Hills Little League (Sydney, Australia), are black and royal blue. Here are the cap and jersey.
CANADA
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Canada’s representative, the Whalley Little League (British Columbia, Canada), have colors of red and black. Here are the cap and jersey.
CARIBBEAN
The Aruba Center Little League (Santa Cruz, Aruba) are the Caribbean representative in the LLWS. Their colors are blue and black. Here are the cap and jersey.
CUBA
I love it when Cuba look like Cuba! The Santa Clara Little League (Villa Clara, Cuba) are the Cuba Region reps, and their colors are royal blue and red. Here are the cap and jersey.
EUROPE AND AFRICA
The Europe and Africa representative is the South Czech Republic Little League (Brno, Czech Republic), sporting colors of purple and teal (!) Here are the cap and jersey.
JAPAN
With colors of light gray and red, the Japan region representative is the Johoku Little League (Tokyo, Japan), and they might have the hardest-to-read numbers of all the unis in the LLWS. Here are the cap and jersey.
LATIN AMERICA
With what I think is one of the better color combos of the LLWS — teal and orange — the Latin America region representative is the Cardenales Little League (Barquisimeto, Venezuela). Here are the cap and jersey.
MEXICO
The Mexico region is represented by the Matamoros Little League (Matamoros, Mexico), and they have traditional colors of green and red. Here are the cap and jersey.
PUERTO RICO
The final team, representing the Puerto Rico region is the Radames Lopez Little League (Guayama, Puerto Rico). They also have the brightest jerseys, and their colors are bright yellow and light blue (another pleasing combo). Here are the cap and jersey.
While I’m a bit disappointed that the uniforms are all in the same template, I think this year’s version is not bad. I wouldn’t want to see these jerseys in the major leagues, but for the LLWS, they’re fine and mostly in pretty good color combinations. I definitely plan on watching as many of the games as I can.
If you plan on watching, here is the tournament schedule. The first game begins at 1:00 pm (Eastern time), and will be a matchup between the Caribbean and Mexico regions. The U.S. and international teams play in separate brackets, in a double-elimination format. The winners of each bracket then play each other for the LLWS championship game. Here are the LLWS brackets.
So, what are your thoughts on the LLWS? Do you plan to watch any of the games? And of the 20 uniforms and caps, which team do you think have the best color combinations? Who has the worst looking? And have any of you ever actually played in the LLWS, or known anyone who has?
The floor is yours.
I don’t think I ever noticed that the wordmark for adidas is not capitalized. What is wrong with me??
Also find it weird that my region (New England) looks like West Ham.
Or Burnley or Villa or Colorado Rapids or Scunthrope and more
West Ham wears those colors because Villa made them famous.
It’s because Aston Villa players lost a bet. link
Exactly. Up the Hammers!
I wouldn’t want to see these jerseys in the major leagues
I would!
Well, the ones with the clearly visible numbers. UCLA…er, the West… and Japan need tweaked. Otherwise, well done, Adidas.
I’ll take this look over a Manfred League jersey with a botched placket any day.
I would love to see them were them for the Little League Classic Game.
Nike makes MLB unis. LLWS unis are made by adidas.
Hell would freeze over before you ever saw that happen.
Even back in 2018, when the Mets and Phillies played in the LL Classic Game (link), and wore their Players Weekend unis, they were different from those worn by LLWS participants (link)
And back then, Majestic made the MLB unis, and Russell did the LLWS unis.
Seems weird that all the coaches have black golf shirts. Seems like they’d match the team.
they look like umpires.
It must be a Little League thing to make the coaches look like umpires. In the regional tournaments, the coaches wore navy blue LL polos.
It’s to ensure that no one dresses poorly (whether consciously or not). They need to have some level of decorum for TV and if you see the way a lot of coaches dress during the regular season you’d understand LOL.
If you noticed, coaches wear a standard blue polo starting in the regional tournaments. 100% because of TV.
We don’t play Little Leauge where I’m from. We have the Dixie system, and I’ve coached my daughter’s 6U All Star team the last two summers. The coaches allowed on field/in dugout have to wear the same shirt with a patch on them.
What gets me about the golf shirts is that they’re all the same color. Give them golf shirts, but let them match the team. So if you’ve got a red and blue team, give them a red golf shirt.
I feel like the these colors have been tied to the regions (at least for the US) for at least a decade now. Would love to see you do a Q&A with someone at LL HQ over how these color combos came to be for each region!
I’m disappointed that ther isn’t one team having All White uniforms with Pinstripes You gotta be kidding me You must have At least one team wearing All white uniforms they are by far the best looking.What a mistake
I have been a Little League volunteer for about fifteen years. To be honest, I really dislike the standardized uniforms in the Little League World Series. They are so corporate and boring – I would guess that this is the uniform template that Adidas will be pushing next year. The regional tournaments are the last opportunity for the teams to wear the local “all star” uniforms that they wear in the district, sectional and state tournaments. Visually, the regionals on ESPN are much more interesting, because the diversity of the uniforms underscores the localities of the participants.
Little League emphasizes the local nature of its affiliate leagues, and then adopts a sterile corporate look for its signature event. It is really disappointing. Note also that they make the coaches wear the same black polo shirts. Why not coordinate the color with their team’s uniform?
Agreed, I was watching some of the regional games, and there were some great uniforms in those games, several were pretty old school, one team was all white with pinstripes, another was cream and maroon with the head spoon.
I also noticed more kids showing plenty of sock/stirrups, I think there was one team where all the players had knee length pants and all had matching socks, there could have been one or two outliers I didn’t see, but they looked great. Maybe the pendulum is swinging back to shorter pants, more stirrup/sock.
superfly – FWIW, for the last couple of years, the trend from a lot of LL players (especially the ones that are on a travelball team also) in the Northwest is to wear their pants very high. I would call it “Hunter Pence style,” for lack of a better term.
Good to hear, I’ve noticed some college players doing the same, hopefully it will filter up MLB eventually.
The only problem
The problem with Hunter Pence-style is he went above the knee, which is just a bit too far in my opinion.
These are…amazing? The one that sticks out like a sore thumb is Puerto Rico – I don’t understand the colours. Otherwise, I’m very impressed.
I remember when Paul said he’s not gonna cover the LLWS, because they are kids. At that time, the uniforms were by Russell Athletic and they were extremely template-driven obnoxious. What could we have said back then? Color-by-number template, end of story. Well, these jerseys actually look nice! And I appreciate some colors befitting the regions, like UCLA for the west and red-black for Canada. Pleasant surprise: I had no idea Cuba sent a team (and surprised too that they get to come to the USA, embargoes etc), but wow they look like Cuba! Great!
Still not sure it’s good to have big media on the kids, definitely still not sure if there’s anything left to say now that we see a big old template at work, but YES I will say that the kids look good and the LLWS looks like a well-run top flight event!
Were Paul’s objections due to the exposure of children to a spotlight and crucible intended for adults, where their unguarded, raw emotions can be played and replayed for our entertainment? That’s how I understood it, because nothing is more painful to witness than a walkoff loss on that bright a stage.
1. How does Aruba have teams in two regions?
2. Are the players required to wear the LLWS issued Adidas shoes, or can they wear their own shoes? It seems like wearing shoes that aren’t their own may be uncomfortable and affect performance.
You can wear different shoes if you choose to, but the kids love wearing the new (free) kicks they get from Adidas. You can also wear whatever batting gloves you choose, but Easton provides each player with a new pair.
You cannot wear any other pants, however, which is a complete bummer because Adidas only provides the ‘trousers’. I’m always glad to see players find a way to hike them up into knickers, but with no elastic at the bottom, it’s tough. I’m extremely proud that my son did it in ‘22, but it took some work on his part:
link
That’s aweseome. I’m sure that experience is something your son will never forget!
He and I both. I was a Coach and it was a dream come true for us. Everything about the LLWS is simply amazing.
I liked it when the Asia and Southwest teams wore variations of the Rainbow Guts. That was in the Russell era
The Cuban team is from Cuba. Not sure where you saw it listed as Aruba, but it is Santa Clara, Cuba.
If you scroll down on this webpage (link) it says “Cuba Region: Santa Clara Little League (Santa Clara, Aruba)”
However, I checked a different site after reading your comment, and this is what was listed:
2024 Team Representative: Santa Clara Little League
2024 Team Location: Villa Clara, Cuba
2024 Region Record: 8-1
I will make the correction.
I was today years old when I learned the LL logo incorporates a PA keystone. Right there in front of my face and everything.
Best: New England
Worst: Australia by an Uluru
Edit: The more I look, the more I like Northwest over New England
“They also have the brightest jerseys, and their colors are bright yellow and light blue ” No way. Those are not even close to the level brightness of the jerseys worn by that team from Texas. link
The Mexico unis are really great. Whatever team (Midwest?) wearing the green and yellow looks very good too. The older I get the more I like that color combo.
I never played in the LLWS but I did play two years in the League. I was a horrible player and getting crushed in the nose by a baseball bat didn’t help things. Amazingly I still have my team photo circa 1981.
I actually like all of these even if it is a boring template by itself. The colors are really popping and the hats are very nice as well. But the best thing is looking at all these young faces: proud or giddy, semi serious or genuinely smiling. This is called a World Series for a reason: these players are so happy to be part of it. I would be so proud to play, coach or watch any of my three sons play.
Buried in the lede: Phil you peaked as a player in 6th grade! JK ! Great article with awesome photos to show the colors. One thing still holds true… there is always the huge 12 year old and the wee 12 year old on every team. I’m 64 and it was true 50+ years ago…..
Some of these color combinations are great. I especially like that Cuba, Canada, and Mexico (among others?) are wearing basically their national colors.
My favorite is Puerto Rico, and it took me a minute to realize the reason why I like them above the others is because the pinstripes are less noticeable on their set. I normally love pinstripes, but the combination of pinstripes and contrasting solid sleeves really doesn’t work for me. The Great Lakes and New England jerseys, for example, would look much better without pinstripes.
Why wouldn’t you want to see these in MLB? The worst one of these is still better than the best City Connect.
While a dark base with white pinstripes is a little too gaudy for MLB, claret (burgundy, maroon, whatever) and Columbia blue (light blue) is a seriously underrated color combination, and I’m surprised that only the USFL/UFL Michigan Panthers are the only team this side of the Pond to use them.
My thoughts on these uniforms:
1. Pinstripe jersey with solid color pants don’t look good in my opinion. If you want pinstripes, go matching shirt and pants, then have an alternate jersey in team colors.
2. Coaches need polos and hats in team colors.
3. I’m okay with the hats, but I prefer solid color hat with contrasting brim.
4. The Europe/Africa team looks like the Charlotte Hornets.
5. The US Southwestern team looks good, but I’d rather it be burnt orange and maroon.
Just wanted to let you guys know that I am originally from Newtown Pa and my mom went to council rock high school. But the main reason for this message is the fact that newton is not a place and I believe there is a typo and it is supposed to say newton
I’m somewhat disappointed seeing names on the backs of the jerseys. When did that start?
I like these. I’m OK with the templates, it’s a degree of standardization and makes it so kids from untraditional markets look like their competitors. Everyone is on the same footing.
Don’t like the rainbow cleaks, guess they went wike